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Western Wyoming/Eastern Idaho

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MarcG

Active Member
Oct 29, 2014
4,302
6,248
San Francisco
I'm starting to plan a ski trip to Jackson Hole over the Christmas holidays, and it seems like getting to Jackson WY may have to be a hypermiling affair.

I first plan on driving from San Francisco to Salt Lake City along I-80, which now has a fair number of superchargers, so that first long leg of the trip should be relatively straightforward. Once in SLC, I'll probably ski a day or two at Alta/Snowbird to take a break from driving.

The only unknown at this point is how the SLC-Jackson leg will go. The closest supercharger to Jackson currently open is in Tremonton, UT along I-15, and that's about 230 miles from Jackson. Depending on the weather, even charging at Tremonton to 100% could be too far to make it without stopping along the way to charge again. There does seem to be some Level 2 chargers on that route in Pocatello and Idaho Falls, but they are few and far between, and slow ones at that.

It would be much better if a supercharger was built along that stretch of I-15 in eastern Idaho. Unfortunately, according to Tesla's supercharger maps, the earliest we could see superchargers on that section of I-15 would be 2016. Since my trip is in late-2015, the supercharger build-out there seems to be just a tad too late...

Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to minimize the time it will take me to travel that portion of the trip?

Thanks!!
-Marc


EVTripPlanner route Tremonton-Jackson via I-15:

Screen Shot 2015-06-18 at 11.51.18 PM.png



Plugshare map of easter Idaho/western Wyoming:

Screen Shot 2015-06-19 at 12.08.29 AM.png



Supercharger map of easter Idaho/western Wyoming for 2015:

Screen Shot 2015-06-19 at 12.13.56 AM.png



Supercharger map of easter Idaho/western Wyoming for 2016:

Screen Shot 2015-06-19 at 12.10.27 AM.png



If only one of the 3 superchargers planned between Tremonton and Jackson could be completed before the end of 2015...
 
Last edited:
@MarcG, I'm confused by your EVTripplanner result. When I plug in those exact same values into EVTripplanner, it does not pick that route. Did you manually move it to that one? The default route it (and Google Maps) chooses turns off I-15 at McCammon and goes East on highway 30 and 34 to highway 89 North. That route is 207 actual miles and 237 rated miles, doable in one charge, where your longer route is coming out to 230 actual miles and 282 rated miles. Why not take the shorter direct route and not have to charge on the way? That is part of the unintended benefit of taking a more direct route on smaller highways--the 55 mph speed limit gives you great efficiency and therefore extends your range.
 
Good question Rocky, I did manually move the EVTripPlanner route over to I-15 since that's where there are any chargers at all between Tremonton and Jackson.
I've decided not to plan on the default route through highways 30/34 in Idaho and 89/26 in Wyoming as it's over 200 miles and is cutting it too close.
In late December, the temperatures are actually between 10-30ºF in that region, so the energy usage would be over 250 miles according to EVTP:

Screen Shot 2015-06-19 at 9.28.48 AM.png
 
Good question Rocky, I did manually move the EVTripPlanner route over to I-15 since that's where there are any chargers at all between Tremonton and Jackson.
I've decided not to plan on the default route through highways 30/34 in Idaho and 89/26 in Wyoming as it's over 200 miles and is cutting it too close.
In late December, the temperatures are actually between 10-30ºF in that region, so the energy usage would be over 250 miles according to EVTP:
If you take this route you could check with one of the RV parks in Lava Hot springs to see if they would let you plug in for a while. Might be easier than running out 10 miles short of Jackson.
Lava Hot Springs Idaho Hotels, Motels and Inns - Lodging
 
Good question Rocky, I did manually move the EVTripPlanner route over to I-15 since that's where there are any chargers at all between Tremonton and Jackson.
I've decided not to plan on the default route through highways 30/34 in Idaho and 89/26 in Wyoming as it's over 200 miles and is cutting it too close.
In late December, the temperatures are actually between 10-30ºF in that region, so the energy usage would be over 250 miles according to EVTP:

Oh, I totally didn't realize this was in December for the temperature issue. I thought you were talking about a trip coming up in a month or two, which wouldn't be much of a problem, but yeah, in the Winter, that's not going to work. [Edit: Heh, I now see you said "over the Christmas holidays". Oops.]